#28 in my Tonics for Your Creative Spirit email series: Maya Fiennes

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Welcome to another dose of wordy wisdom to keep your creative spirits up.

I’m always on the lookout for inspiring ideas to ease the bumpy creative journey and quite often these appear from outside of the creative industry.

This week’s gem comes from the beautiful world of yoga, in particular from the multi-talented yogini extraordinaire, Maya Fiennes;

I find this idea such a soul-soothing reminder that being creative is our natural state.

As humans, we are innately creative, we are born with more creative potential than we could ever use.

So why don’t we always feel creative? Why do we sometimes find it hard to express our creative self, or to ‘get in the zone’?

It’s not because of what’s missing – not a single one of us lacks creative ability.

It’s because of what we’ve allowed to get in the way.

Blocks, in other words. (Ever experienced those…?)

So to enjoy a happier creative flow, maybe we just need to get curious about what’s stopping our natural genius from shining through. Maybe we just need to explore and discover what’s getting in the way.

Admittedly this is not always easy! (Which is why I’m an advocate for getting support 🙂 )

But I find this idea much more encouraging than the prospect of not being creative enough, or being no good at creativity. (Which is never the most productive or enjoyable mindset.)

In other words… 

Yoga for Real Life

In the book, she explores the link between creativity and our chakras, in particular the second chakra, the Sacral Chakra.

And if you’re intrigued by the idea of working with your chakras to find more creative flow, I’ve written a more in-depth review of Maya’s book here.

It’s a gorgeous read – all beautiful pictures, inspiring stories, smoothie recipes and yoga poses to encourage even the weariest soul onto the mat.

And if you’d like to see Maya in action, she demonstrates how yoga can unblock and balance your chakras in her Journey Through The Chakras DVD series – which I’ve also reviewed here. (Can you tell I’m a fan?)

In fact, the design of this week’s graphic is my homage to the minimalist beauty of Maya’s DVDs. And the orange is a reflection of the Sacral Chakra – the seat of our creativity.

If you’re curious about chakra colours and their meanings, this post is a great intro. And this post by the lovely Liz over at Little Spark of Joy is a beautiful Beginner’s Guide To The Chakras. So good!

So I hope you find this helpful, and that you’ll consider yoga as a tool to enhance your creative flow.

(It also has the bonus side effect of building the physical health, stamina and mental strength you’ll need to bring your beautiful creative dreams to fruition.)

Wishing you a peaceful and creative week,

Namaste,

UPDATE: 

Since I wrote this post back in 2014, my love of yoga has deepened and I’ve discovered that it not only provides a healthy and happy foundation for creative living, it can also be an effective go-to practice for inspiration, clarity or flow. 

So much so that these days, I build yoga into my daily routine – as part of my work day. 

I’ve found it to be a highly productive way to begin and end my office hours, with my yoga-musings saving me far more time than they cost in hours away from my desk. 

It’s like Inspiration On Demand. 🙂 

I highly recommend experimenting with a yoga practice within your creative adventures.

And if you’d like to know more about designing an optimum workday that’s uniquely perfect, productive and fun for you, I’m sharing my decades of Design Thinking expertise here. 

{ A recent (highly productive) Yoga & Business Retreat in my back garden }